A small, shoestring-run airline delivers mail through a very dangerous pass in the Andes, and the pilots are misfits looking to run and hide (from dames, mainly) or make a quick buck and go somewhere else. Sig Rumann is the owner, Cary Grant is the manager, Thomas Mitchell is his best buddy, and John Carroll and Noah Beery, Jr. are amongst the pilots. They're all really stoic and fatalistic because it's a dangerous job with a lot of crackups, but they also make full use of black humor and graveyard-passing-whistling to get through it all. And then things have to go and get all dramatic. First, Jean Arthur shows up; she's an entertainer on a layover for a day, and the pilots are wooing her but, hey, c'mon, you're a woman (or can imagine yourself as one) and you're bein' wooed by Noah Beery, Jr. while Cary Grant is standin' over there. Thank you. In any case, that's going to cause some tension. Then arrives, of all people, Richard Barthelmess and his wife Rita Hayworth. Richard once bailed out of a plane and left his co-pilot, Thomas Mitchell's brother Scoey, to die (okay, probably his brother's name wasn't Scoey) so he's EXTREMELY unpopular but heck, they need pilots. Oh, and Rita used to mess around with Cary and there are still some sparks, sparks REALLY obvious to Miss Arthur. I TOLD YOU IT GOT ALL DRAMATIC. Terrific Howard Hawks movie that starts okay, gets good, then gets VERY good and then gets GREAT. It's exciting, suspenseful, romantic, dramatic... If there's a drawback, it's the claustrophobic sets (that dock where the ship lands, I swear, is smaller than anything in a Monogram picture) but the flying sequences are some of the best I've ever seen, and I don't mean in the 1930s, I mean EVER, in movies. Million-dollar Dialog: Jeff, you don't have to be afraid of me anymore. I'm not trying to tie you down. I don't wanna plan, I don't wanna look ahead, I don't want you to change anything. I love you, Jeff. There's nothing I can do about it. I just love you, that's all.' - Jean to Guess Whom Of course, Miss Arthur was at her best playing wry in romantic comedies, but she's got dramatic chops, too and that quality that... I dunno... I can't take my eyes off her for a second when she's onscreen, and this is one of her best roles and best performances. She looks good, she plays piano, she lights Cary Grant's ciggies for him (a LOT), and for somebody who was reportedly terrified to be in front of a camera, she never, ever holds anything back. Grant is really good here; one doesn't see him TOO often playing as part of an ensemble of men and fitting in as well as he does here. Mitchell of course is the Ringo Starr of movie actors; he must've pinched himself every day and asked what he did to fall into the career he was in. Hayworth is bodaciously lovely in her breakthrough role, and Barthelmess gives an Oscar-worthy performance as the haunted pilot trying for a comeback. Million-dollar Jean Arthur Dialog: I'm hard to get, Jeff. All you have to do is ask me.' The disc comes with a too-brief documentary on the making of the film that contains one good story: Hawks was asked why in his movies the women always hit on the men, and he responded, 'Ever see a man hitting on a woman? It's ridiculous.' A terrific movie.